Cases
A case consists of all of the work that is required to complete an assay for a set of samples. Dimsum is based heavily upon this structure. Because an assay is required to construct a case, a sample can only be included in Dimsum if the sample belongs to a requisition that specifies a well-defined assay. Well-defined means that the assay has one or more tests defined. Samples not meeting this criteria appear on the Omissions Page.
Case Grouping
A requisition forms the boundary for case grouping - all samples belonging to the case must be included in the same requisition. If a sample from a previous case needs to be grouped with new samples in a new requisition, it can be added to the new requisition as a supplemental sample.
Within the requisition, tumour samples are grouped by the following attributes to form cases.
- Donor
- Tissue type
- Tissue origin
- Timepoint
All normals from the same donor within the requisition will be included in all of the requisition's cases for that donor.
Sample Grouping Criteria
Two samples are considered a match and can be used for the same test if they have the same
- Donor
- Tissue type
- Tissue origin
- Timepoint
- Group ID
The only additional field here is group ID, so if there are two group IDs for otherwise matching samples, they will each be tested separately.
Repeatable Tests
Assays can have multiple tests. For example, WGTS assays have 3 tests: Normal WG, Tumour WG, and Tumour WT. One attribute of a test is whether it is "repeatable"
If true:
- The test must be completed once for each sample grouping received
- A case will be created for each case grouping received
- The test will be repeated within the case for each sample grouping
- Typical for tumour tests
If false:
- The test only needs to be completed once for the donor
- The test will be included in every case for the donor
- Typical for normal tests